LETTER TO STEVEN GARFINKEL FROM THOMAS H. WHITE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP09-02663R000100010001-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: October 30, 1980
• Content Type: LETTER

' Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/12/27: CIA-RDP09-026638000100010001-5
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20505
3 0 OCT .1980
Mr. Steven Garfinkel
Director, Information Security
Oversight Office (Z)
General Services Administration
18th ~, F Streets, N.W.
Washington, D.C. .20405
Forwarded herewith is our fiscal year 1980 Agency Information Security
Program Data (SF ~lI) report.
As was done last year, the statistics in section lb of the report were
obtained.-from an actual count aver a seven-day t~eriod (?0-26 September) and.
projected to cover the reporting period.
Sincerely,
~S~ EQm
Thomas H. White
Director of Tnforma.tion Services
Directorate of Administration
STAT
DDA/OIS/RNID/RS~ saj (27 Oct 1980)
Retyped: OIS:mes 30 Oct 1980)
Distribution:
Original - Addressee w/enclosure
1 - OIS Subject w/enclosure.
1 - OIS Chrono w/enclosure
1 - RSB Subject: Reports to IS00
1 - RSB Chrono
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 STAT
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Continuation Sheet to SF 311
4. Narrative Report
a. DECLASSIFICATION. (Describe actions to declassify information
under t e systematic review procedures of the Order.? Include.
discussion of problem areas and give estimated date for transition
to systematic review of material as it reaches its 20th anniversary
of origin.)
The Classification Review Division (CRD) of our Office of Information
Services is responsible for the systematic review of Agency permanent
records over 20 years old. It is composed of officers from throughout the
Agency whose background and experience qualify them to make the necessary
classification judgments. Coordination with originating or responsible
components is available on those infrequent occasions when it
is necessary. Over the past year CRD has increased production by the
addition of as many reviewing officers as budget and office space permit.
The productivity of these officers has also been upgraded through increased
clerical support and refinement of a number of .internal procedures. CRD
has negotiated the .review procedures for two groups of interdepartmental
records with other agencies and will use these procedures as a basis for
additional review agreements on other interagency material. Also, CRD
is exploring methods of reviewing a large body of records stored in non-
paper form (film, microforms, ADP media, etc). Problem areas continue to
be (1) shortage of personnel, (2) lack of adequate office space and other
resources for the expansion of the staff, and (3) limited storage space
in which to keep a backlog of work readily at hand. Nevertheless, we
consider somewhat conservative the earlier estimate that we will be able
to complete only 220 of the material necessary to make the transition
to 20-year review by 1988. Experience and innovation have increased
CRD's productivity enough that completion. of 30a now would seem more likely.
Efforts continue in this regard in an attempt to complete .the transition
in compliance with the Executive Order.
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b. TRAINING. (Describe all major actions relating to information
security education and training, including special- efforts toward
limiting the amount, level, and duration of classified material
generated, and increasing public access to information declassified.)
There has been a continuation of our effort to familiarize Agency
personnel with Executive Order 12065. Most training is provided by our
Office of Training and Education and emphasis has been placed on the ---
implementation of E.O. 12065 within CIA as well as the tools available
to persons who classify, specifically the Agency Information Security
,Program Handbook and its associated guides.
The students addressed have ranged the entire spectriun of grades
and positions and tivere attending courses in records and information
handling, Freedom of Information-and Privacy Act processing, administrative
.procedures training, and orientation programs:
Upon request, special seminars and discussion groans have been held
with individual offices and staffs to assist them in understanding how
the Order applies to their specific information.
Additionally the Security Education Group of our Office of Security
(OS) addresses a wide variety of audiences in the Agency from new persons
entering on duty, to specifically tailored security reindoctrinations
'delivered to members of particular offices in every. directorate, to
groups of Agency trainees who represent a homogeneous cross section of
the Agency. Specific references are usually made to the responsibility
to properly classify material. In each forum, the opportunity exists to
raise questions about individual and institutional responsibilities to
properly classify, declassify, and safeguard material..
During. this reporting period the National Archives and Records
Service (NABS) accessioned some Agency records and others are under
consideration. NABS has also been given a printout from CRD's ADP
system indicating. the review decisions on a record group of finished
intelligence, most of which was declassified. This will enable NABS to
take the indicated action on its own copies, thus making the information
available to the public. In addition, we have scheduled teams of review
officers to visit NABS and the 6vashington National Records Center one
day each week to review material of CIA interest found in records of
other agencies. Most of this material is declassified and therefore
becomes available to the public.
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c. SAFEGUARDS. (Describe actions to enhance safeguards, to
inclu e control of reproduction, reduction of classified holdings,
and improved methods of destruction.) '
The Physical Security Division of OS enforces the safeguards required
by Executive Order 12065 and the implementing directives through a
program of physical security surveys, inspections and audits. There are
approximately 750 separate elements which are subject to this program.
These elements include Agency Headquarters components, domestic
facilities, foreign facilities, and contractor facilities. This program
is acfi-inistered through the use of approximately 24 professional officers
with appropriate supervision. 'The program centers around establishing
physical security standards and procedural standards and the enforcement
of these standards through surveys, inspections, and audits.
d. BALANCING. TEST. Describe extent of use of the balancing test
(E.O. 12065, Section 3-303) and impact on agency mission.
As you are aware, the Agency has recently published a regulation
dealing with the balancing test in the Federal Register. This regulation
appears as part of CIA's Information Security Regulations set forth at
32 C.F.R. 1902. The regulation became effective upon publication and
contains the most recent version of the balancing test. It is important
to note that this regulation contains modifications as suggested by ISOO
in a letter to Admiral Turner dated 5 August 1980. As a result of
the ISOO suggestions, an additional situation in which balancing would
be appropriate was included. This modification, set forth at 32 C.F.R.
1902.13(c)6, indicates balancing will occur in cases in which nondisclosure
of classified information could reasonably be expected to "...deprive
the public of information indispensable to public decisions on issues of
critical national importance..."
This Agency's use of the balancing test most often occurs in litigation
which has been brought under the Freeedom of Information or Privacy
Acts. In such cases, this Agency has declined to furnish documents or
portions of documents to a requester on the ground, among others, they
contain information that has. been properly classified in accordance with
Executive Order 12065. To justify such withholdings, CIA must show (1)
the information is a proper subject for classification, (2) the requisite
injury to the national defense could reasonably be expected to occur if
this information was related to the public and, (3) the .document which
contains such information has been properly classified procedurally.
If a classified document is at issue in litigation it is necessary
for this Agency to defend its withholding. This defense is made primarily
through the submission of affidavits to the Court--sworn statements
signed by senior Agency officials ~,lith Top Secret classification authority.
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STAT
These affidavits, insofar as classification is concerned, must demonstrate
the withheld information has. been properly classified in accordance with
E.O. 12065. After demonstrating the current classification of the
withheld documents is consistent with the Executive Order, the affidavit
will, in the typical case, consider the balancing test.
,In considering the balancing test, the senior Agency official will
and to a 30 November 1978 advisory letter onvthe subject to the Interagency
Classification Review Committee from the Pr-esident's National Security
Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Because of the relative narrowness of the
conditions under which balancing may occur--circumstances that are
usually absent--the senior official typically concludes-that the requisite
circumstances for balancing do not exist. Accordingly, no balancing
occurs.
In summary, the balancing test, in the context of litigation to
which this Agency is a party, imposes no significant burdens upon the
Agency. In such litigation CIA is required to establish the classified
status of a document or portions of a document and the additional burdens
associated with applying the balancing test are slight.
e. PROGRAM MANAGEMFNI'. (Describe major problems encountered
in implementing E.O. 12065 and ISO0 directives.)
As reflected in paragraph c above, the implementation of the Agency
physical security program requires a substantial dedication of manpower.
However, because of the nature of the Agency mission, the sensitivity of
the information with which the Agency deals, and our charter to protect
intelligence sources and methods, the implementation of Executive-Order 12065
has not required a measure of physical protection over and above that '
already in existence.
A major problem with implementation of the Order continues to be
the potential damage to the national security posed by the declassification
of intelligence records, many of which by themselves may seem harmless
but in the aggregate could cause significant harm. Also important are
staffing and logistical problems such as those mentioned in paragraph a
above. Further, the systematic review of the Agency's non-paper holdings
will be slow at best; merely surveying these holdings and determining
how they are to be reviewed will probably take the better part of F'Y
1981. Finally, the evolving mechanism for review of interdepartmental
material may require some adjustment.
~ Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/12/27: CIA-RDP09-026638000100010001-5